1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a variable sweep infeed element for a rotary combine having a forward portion that is provided with a forward swept section and a rearward portion that is provided with a rearward swept section.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Agricultural combines are large machines that harvest, thresh, separate and clean an agricultural crop. The resulting clean grain is stored in a grain tank located on the combine. The clean grain can then be transported from the grain tank to a truck, grain cart or other receiving bin by an unloading auger.
Rotary combines have one or two large rotors arranged along the longitudinal axis of the machine for threshing and separating the harvested crop material. These rotors are provided with an infeed section for receiving harvested crop material, a threshing section for threshing the harvested crop material received from the infeed section and a separating section for freeing grain trapped in the threshed crop material received from the threshing section.
The harvested crop is delivered to the infeed section by the feederhouse. The crop is arranged in a crop mat which the infeed elements of the rotor need to take up and rotate into a helical flow. Previously, feeding elements have been arranged with a continuous sweep angle along the length of the element, or these infeed elements are rearward swept at the initial point of contact with the crop mat and proceed to forward swept as the element extends downstream in the longitudinal direction.
These basic designs are used on all axially arranged rotary combines currently being marketed. A common problem for these machines is their difficulty in feeding tough, damp or green crop material as well as short, dry or slick crop material with the same infeed element geometry. This difficulty limits machine throughput and causes the operator to significantly reduce the amount of material that is fed to the rotary crop processing assemblies.